Tim’s recommendations for Amsterdam!
Here are my personal tips -based on experience and research- for a great experience in Amsterdam which resulted in a good list of tips (food/restaurants, nightlife, museums, shopping, coffee shops, and parks).
All of you good luck in Amsterdam!
And don’t forget to write me a review here of course 😉
Food / Restaurants
Food / Breakfast / Lunch
Dutch Snacks
Food Markets
Bars
Nightlife
Shopping
Coffeeshops (no coffee, weed!)
Museums
Parks
Thing to do
More Free Tours in Amsterdam
Food / Restaurants
I’ll start with some fancy restaurants:
Restaurant Adam, best restaurant of Amsterdam, if you want to have something special have diner here! (€40- 60 main dish but worth it!)
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Hanneke’s Boom
A great restaurant to site outside, the food is nice but you go there mostly for the hipster environment.
(€15 to €25 for the main dish) but you end up drinking lots of beer there 😉
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Hemelse modder is a really nice Dutch/French organic restaurant, semi-fancy, almost only locals. Around €35 for a menu or €20 main dish.
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Loetje aan het IJ Nice Famous Dutch steak restaurant. A specially the venue at the water is great!
(€20 to €30 for the main dish)
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Prins van Oranje (€30 a menu, €20 main dish, great restaurant if you want to taste the dutch food)
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Oba Public Library but also great lunch place upstairs (€10 to €15 for a good lunch)
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Breakfast/lunch
Oba Public Library but also great lunch place upstairs (€10 to €15 for a good lunch)
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Laatste Kruimel We walked there with the classic tour small restaurant with lots of lunch options. (€5 to €15)
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Dutch snacks
Fish Haring & Zo For amazing haring and kibbling (typical Dutch fish treats) just behind the place on Dam square, get a herring there!
Cheese Reyepenaer Proeflokaal, the best place to buy real cheese, we go there with the food tour the great cheese you tasted. They also have a cheese tasting.
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Stroopwafel Van Wonderen the Dutch Stroopwafel that you have to try with a coffee. There are a lot of toppings to choose but I would go for the plain one.
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Poffertjes at Metropolitan but also chocolate and a lot more, take your dessert here, and if you still have space for a bite try the Dutch poffertjes!
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Food markets
There are 2 great biological food markets on Saturday (best for your cheese shopping) on the Nieuw Markt square and the Noorder Markt square (famous apple pie at cafe Winkel here as well)
And every day the biggest food market form the Netherlands (except Sunday) the local market Albert cuyp.
Bars
Great for special beers are Brouwerij ‘t Ij (it’s in a windmill), Spuyt, Tripel and de Prael. Also around nieuwmarkt square there’s loads of great bars like de Bekeerde Suster (Brewery) or Fonteyn.
A great 17th-century Dutch liqueur distillery is Wynand Fockink, reserve a tasting hour for €17,50 including 6 drinks and a tour!
For more alternative places you can go to Roest or de Ceuvel, better with nice weather though.
The Bloemenbar at Spuiplein is open until late, the pool bar around the same area is also a very nice spot.
Nightlife
Go to the areas of Leidseplein or Rembrandtplein, I prefer the former. Paradiso is a beautiful old venue at Leidseplein for concerts as well as dancing.
A great Berlin-style EDM venue is de school (usually only in weekends, so check what’s on).
For more alternative places go to pacific parc or skate cafe, always check what’s on though.
The (legendary) gay areas are around the reguliersdwarsstraat and the zeedijk.
Shopping
For nice boutique shops go to the 9 streets and de Haarlemmerstraat in the Jordaan area.
For the expensive big brand, fashion shops go to the “Pieter Cornelis Hooft straat” between the Vondelpark (biggest park in Amsterdam) and the museum square.
For great secondhand clothes go to the nearby Waterloo square clothes market (Monday through Saturday) and the episode, time machine, zipper and kilo shops.
All the standard shops you can find at the Kalverstraat and Nieuwendijk around Dam square.
Coffeeshops (no coffee; weed)
Great Coffeeshops are the Bluebird, the Grey Area, the Dampkring, 1e Hulp, Boerejongens, de Graal (really nice to hang out, play chess and board games, they even have a 5 euro an hour recording studio out back for customers!) and the Prix the Amie if you’re with a big group. Another great one is Smoke Palace which is on the Lineausstraat.
Museums
For the most popular museums (Anne Frank, Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum) order your tickets online beforehand to skip the hour-long lines.
If you want to pick one of the main museums I would personally go to the Rijksmuseum. It’s the biggest museum in Amsterdam and they have the art of all the great painters from the 17th century.
I would personally advise you not to visit the Heineken Experience. Long lines, expensive tickets and it’s basically just a brewery, nothing special.
If you want to learn more about the history and culture of Amsterdam go to the Amsterdam museum.
Some nice alternative museums are Stedelijk museum (modern, next to Van Gogh), foam (photography) and Eye (cinema and video art, its a movie theater as well, with a bar with a wonderful view of Amsterdam).
Also, have a peek inside Tuchinski, the oldest movie theater in Amsterdam build in an Art Deco style with a crazy interior.
Parks
The Vondelpark, next to the museum square.
Sarphatipark, in the Pijp, is parallel to the Albert Cuyp market
Amsterdamse Bos is a nice place and they also have a place where you can cuddle with goats.
Fun activities in Amsterdam
Complete your visit to Amsterdam, by exploring the city on its beautiful canals. For a quality tour with excellent service, I highly recommend
Flag Ship
Mystery city puzzle tour, discover the city and its history by solving a puzzle. Challenge yourself and try it!
Mystery city escape game Amsterdam
Join our themed tours!
Did you enjoy our Classic Tour? Dive deeper into the Dutch culture with our Free Alternative Tour or Free Food Tour:
